Girl Power + Plant Power
Boston-based Colette matches women with high-quality CBD products.
The holiday season can be stressful, especially for busy women. Whether you’re looking for a thoughtful gift for a special woman in your life or just a little something for yourself, Colette, an online CBD product retailer based in Boston, offers curated “Colette Kits” to help remove the guesswork from your holiday shopping. Just fill out the form on the website and you’ll receive recommendations for six lotions, balms, tinctures, tasty treats, and beauty products targeting everything from fatigue and insomnia to postpartum depression, hot flashes, PMS, and menstrual pain. All Colette Kits come in an elegant box and include a journal to help you keep track of your experience.
If you already know what you’re looking for, Colette also offers pre-made kits targeting sleep, beauty, pain, and stress. Products such as CBD-infused chocolates, dermal patches, facial masks, lip balm, candles, and herbal teas are available for purchase à la carte.
Women-owned companies make more than 85 percent of the products Colette sells. All products are made using hemp and CBD oil that’s sustainably grown in the United States.
GOING GLOBAL
This Pine Tree State calendar will spruce up your refrigerator door.
Maine nonprofit Chance to Advance, in partnership with the Catholic Charities Office of Maine Refugee Services, has released its annual “Celebrate Diversity in Maine” wall calendar for 2021. The calendar features photos of Maine immigrants, shares their stories, and highlights the achievements of this resilient and remarkable group of people. All profits from the sale of the $25 calendars will be added to a scholarship fund benefiting first-generation refugee youths who choose to attend college in Maine. A calendar release party is planned for December 18 in Portland.
Seasons Greetings from Boston
If you’re hoping to support local businesses with your holiday purchases this year, the Boston Collection holiday cards from Massachusetts Bay Trading Co. should be on your list. With more than 30 original designs by local artists and photographers, the frame-worthy cards are printed on recycled acid-free paper and are guaranteed not to yellow or curl over time. Choose from classic Boston scenes, including Copley Square, Beacon Hill, the Charles River, and the Zakim Bridge. $17–$20 for a box of 10 cards.
“FOR IT IS IN GIVING THAT WE RECEIVE.”
– St. Francis of Assisi, 13th century Italian Catholic friar
TOY STORIES
Feel like a kid again at this one-of-a-kind museum.
Located in Quechee, Vermont, the Vermont Toy Museum is home to more than 100,000 toys dating back to the 1800s. Toys on display are arranged by decade and include everything from antique cast-iron piggy banks to themed lunch boxes, Pez dispensers, dolls, board games, and Star Wars action figures. More contemporary toys such as Sponge Bob stuffies and My Little Pony figurines are also on exhibit. The muse- um is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day. Facial coverings are required for admission.
1. THE MORE THE MERRIER
One in three Americans now lives in a state where recreational cannabis is legal, thanks to voters in New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota supporting measures to legalize the plant for adult use.
2. MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS
Supporters of marijuana legalization in Arizona outraised and outspent opponents 10 to one leading up to Election Day. In New Jersey, that number was 99 to one.
3. THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION
According to a new Gallup Poll released in November, 68 percent of Americans support cannabis legalization. That’s 5.5 times more support than five decades ago in 1969. If you’re a young adult American male with a college degree earning more than $100k, there’s at least a 74 percent chance you sup- port legalization, according to the poll. If you’re Republican or attend religious services weekly, there’s a 52 percent chance you don’t.
4. MAGIC MONEY
David Bronner of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps wrote checks totaling more than $6.4 million toward drug-war reform campaigns this year, thanks in part to COVID-19, which has the soap business booming.
5. TRIPPING OVER NOTHING
Psychedelic mushrooms send the fewest people to the emergency room of any drug on the market, according to a massive report by the Global Drug Survey. Related: there are more than 100 varieties of psilocybin-producing mush- rooms, aka “magic mushrooms,” aka the kind Oregon voters legalized in November’s election.
THAT’S A WRAP
Wrap festive packages with eco-friendly holiday ribbons and paper made from hemp and other renewable materials.
According to the Clean Air Council, approximately 30 million trees are used to manufacture the more than four million tons of holiday gift wrap Americans use each year. Fortunately, sustainable alternatives to traditional holiday paper, which usually can’t be recycled because it contains artificial dyes and additives, are becoming easier to find. Online retailer Wrappily specializes in making sustainable gift wrap from recycled newsprint with cheerful designs printed using soy-based ink. The company also makes eco-friendly cotton curling ribbon and biodegradable hemp twine in several jolly colors and patterns.
